Thursday, May 26, 2011

She's Electric: The Retina Scalder Goes Live!

It's knitty surprise time once again, and in the spirit of spring and color theory, here it is:

This is the result of a challenge posed by knitty and Lorna's Laces yarns: I was tasked with "doing my thing" with some highly variegated, super bright yarn, full of different contrasts. If it is not yet clear, my "thing" is creating garments. Sure, it's easy enough to make a variegated hat, or shawl, but what about a sweater? For an adult?

Lorna's Laces chose the colors. They pulled no punches. The yarn arrived, scalding my retinas when I ripped open the packaging ("Retina Scalder" was the project's name while it was in progress). However, driving home from work a few weeks ago, the Oasis song "She's Electric" came on the radio. Which made me think.

I like that song.

It's a great name for this sweater.

I'm particularly pleased with that back detail.

Because really, once the yarn is knit up and on a person, it's not scalding at all. It's stunning. This cardigan is a compliment magnet. And look, no pooling!

It's just as bright as Oranje, but it's knit in one piece from the top down, with a slipped stitch waistband pattern that only uses one color at a time. Color knows no difficulty level.

P.S. For those of you have watched recent seasons of America's Next Top Model, NOT THAT I RECOMMEND IT, my sister (who took these photos) told me to "Smize". Can you tell? I was smizing in that first shot!

11 comments:

Fantastic! I am currently tackling my first adult sweater--the Lauren Sweater--and am already addicted to sweater knitting. This may be my next sweater, although Oranje has been calling to me ever since you hinted at it over a year ago.

what a great cardi! of course you can take two colors most folks would consider clashing an' make 'em look like they belong together! and yes, the back detail is just that extra sumpin' sumpin'. also, you are so pretty. just gotta say.

So beautiful, and just like Oranje, it's going right into my Ravelry queue and being bumped up to the top!

I hope your next Knitty contribution gets placed in with the main issue's patterns and we don't have to wait endlessly for the surprise! This is so gorgeous and innovative, it should be a cover pattern!